Quick Takes: News You May Have Missed

The Palestinian Authority has decided to support and encourage a “low-level” popular uprising in the strategic West Bank, according to Palestinian and Jordanian intelligence sources.

The Palestinian and Jordanian sources told this column the decision empowers local leaders of PA President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah organization to lead what would be viewed as a “popular struggle” of Palestinians protesting as well as throwing stones, rocks and Molotov cocktails at Israeli soldiers and Jewish residents of the West Bank.

The “struggle” would be concentrated against Israeli West Bank communities, anti-terror checkpoints and an Israeli security fence that snakes alongside the West Bank.

According to the Palestinian and Jordanian sources, a PA committee has been studying how to best support and finance the “popular struggle.” The sources said that for now the PA has decided against “higher-level” terrorist attacks, such as roadside shootings or suicide bombings.

Last week, Meir Hai, a 40-year-old West Bank Jewish teacher and father of seven, was murdered in a shooting attack on a road near his home, in an area where Israel had recently lifted a roadblock restricting Palestinian movement.

According to sources inside the PA speaking to WorldNetDaily, the Palestinian Authority was against the shooting of Hai, which they said was financed by the Iranian-backed Hizbullah militia in Lebanon.

The “popular struggle” decision comes at a time of increased international pressure, including from the Obama administration, for Israeli-Palestinian talks aimed at an eventual Israeli withdrawal from most of the West Bank. The determination also comes as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has been enforcing a 10-month freeze on Jewish West Bank construction in line with U.S. demands.

U.S. Wants To Know Why

Israel Killed Terrorists

The Obama administration this past weekend demanded that the Israeli government explain why its military eliminated three terrorists in an operation over the weekend.

“This is sheer chutzpah and is an unprecedented and strange request,” said an Israeli security official familiar with the U.S. request.

Over the weekend, three terrorists, all members of Fatah, were killed during an Israeli raid intended to arrest the men, who were suspected of killing an Israeli civilian, Meir Chai, last week. The three terrorists were heavily armed and refused to surrender to the Israeli soldiers, according to the Israel Defense Forces. All three terrorists were members of the U.S.-trained and funded Fatah security forces.

According to Israeli diplomatic sources, senior Obama administration officials demanded that Prime Minister Netanyahu’s national security adviser, Uzi Arad, explain to them how the Fatah terrorists were killed. The U.S. officials were also reportedly acting on a request for an explanation from the PA.

The Israeli diplomatic sources said that Arad explained to the Obama officials that the IDF was acting in self-defense and that Israeli soldiers were engaged in a dangerous operation to arrest terrorists who just two days before shot and killed a Jew.

TSA Without A Pilot

Many American airline passengers may be surprised to learn that the Transportation Security Administration, the agency responsible with securing all modes of transportation in the country, currently has no leader.

Republican lawmakers have placed a “hold” on President Obama’s pick to head the TSA over concerns he could undermine safety by unionizing airport security. The nominee is Erroll Southers, assistant chief in charge of security and intelligence at the Los Angeles airport’s police department.

“It’s very simple. Giving union bosses control over security at our nation’s airports is dangerous and will harm our ability to respond to serious threats,” said Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C.

“If President Obama’s nominee will not commit to putting homeland security above the whims of union bosses, it should give everyone serious concern,” DeMint said last month when the conflict developed.

DeMint last month blocked a vote to confirm Southers due to the nominee’s ducking of questions about whether he would consider reversing the current policy that bars the unionizing of airport security screeners.

Alinsky Still An Inspiration

Just five days after affirming on air that he is a liberal, MSNBC host Chris Matthews exclaimed that radical community organizer Saul Alinsky is one of his heroes.

Stated Matthews: “Well, to reach back to one of our heroes from the past, from the ’60s, Saul Alinsky once said that even though both sides have flaws in their arguments and you can always find something nuanced about your own side you don’t like and it’s never perfect, you have to act in the end like there’s simple black and white clarity between your side and the other side or you don’t get anything done.

“I always try to remind myself of Saul Alinsky when I get confused,” Matthews said on his “Hardball” show, speaking to guest Sen. Bernie Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, on the topic of President Obama’s health care plan.

Alinsky is generally considered to be the founder of modern community organizing. He founded and trained community organizations to follow his methods, including organizations in South Chicago, where President Obama credits his political beginnings. Alinsky’s methods have been adopted by communist, socialist and radical anti-American groups. The Washington Post reportedObama was hired shortly after graduating from college by a group of Alinsky’s disciples to be community organizer on Chicago’s South Side.

The letter, signed L. David Alinsky, closed by saying, “I am proud to see that my father’s model for organizing is being applied successfully.”

Aaron Klein is Jerusalem bureau chief for WorldNetDaily.com. He appears throughout the week on leading U.S. radio programs and is the author of the book “The Late Great State of Israel.” Follow Klein on Twitter under the name “AaronKleinWND.”

Aaron Klein is the Jerusalem bureau chief for Breitbart News. Visit the website daily at www.breitbart.com/jerusalem. He is also host of an investigative radio program on New York's 970 AM Radio on Sundays from 7 to 9 p.m. Eastern. His website is KleinOnline.com.